It's not a great day for hundreds of employees at Amazon's Seattle headquarters.

As was first reported by The Seattle Times, Amazon is laying off "several hundred" workers in Seattle and "hundreds more elsewhere"—an unusual move for the growth-obsessed online retail giant. There's no word as to exactly how many pink slips Amazon is handing out, but the layoffs will predominantly affect workers in the company's consumer retail business, two unnamed sources told the newspaper.

Amazon confirmed the layoffs in a Monday email to PCMag, but declined to offer any specifics.

"As part of our annual planning process, we are making headcount adjustments across the company—small reductions in a couple of places and aggressive hiring in many others," Amazon wrote. "For affected employees, we work to find roles in the areas where we are hiring."

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Despite the layoffs, Amazon currently has some 3,900 corporate jobs open in Seattle and 12,000 worldwide. At the end of last year, the company employed more than 560,000 people globally.

In Seattle alone, Amazon employs more than 40,000 workers, up from 5,000 in 2010, according to The Seattle Times. The newspaper reported that Amazon's rapid pace of growth over the last two years has "left some units over budget and some teams with too much staff for their work."

About the Author

Angela has been a PCMag reporter since January 2012. Prior to joining the team, she worked as a reporter for SC Magazine, covering everything related to hackers and computer security. Angela has also written for The Northern Valley Suburbanite in New Jersey, The Dominion Post in West Virginia, and the Uniontown-Herald Standard in Pennsylvania. She ... See Full Bio

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